


Transience

by MiniNephthys



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-14
Updated: 2013-11-14
Packaged: 2018-01-01 10:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One must be deeply aware of the impermanence of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transience

Lucifer travels to this world on the brink of destruction to find if it is worth saving. There is still time for it to recover. Humans, with a little help, can come to their senses here and rebuild peace: there are many other worlds too far gone for him to do anything but manipulate events after most of humanity is dead.

He makes a decision quickly. Despite the grim news on the television, the cults, and the governments on the brink of war, the people one runs into every day are kind. Though their world is on the edge of breaking apart, they help one another and face each day with resolution despite not knowing if it will be their last. He will help them, as well.

He needs to stay on Earth for a while longer to work out a way to return the planet itself to its former state. During that time, he poses as a normal human being. Like any human being will, he meets people and learns their names and faces.

Chiyo Kaname. She works as a grocer and lives in an apartment near him. Her smile is easy and she takes an interest in him that goes beyond the superficial. It isn't a desire to use him for power or any sort of personal gain beyond the pleasure of his company, and that is something Lucifer isn't used to. When he isn't busy working, he finds himself gravitating towards her apartment instead of his.

Mitsu Kai is not his neighbor, but is often around the neighborhood that she says her family has always lived in. She has a gentle beauty that he can't easily compare to any demon, and she meets him often on walks outside despite the weather, to keep her health up. She speaks intelligently on many subjects, and when they cross paths Lucifer enjoys her company.

Chiyo asks him out to a see a movie. Mitsu asks him out to a lunch date. He declines both.

He can't get too attached to anyone. While he does enjoy being with them, he knows that he'll leave in a few years at most and never see them again for the rest of his life. It's unfair to them, too, to leave them without an explanation.

Lucifer gives into Mitsu first. She asks one day if it's because of her sickness that he rejects her, because she'll be gone soon and leave him alive. The accuracy makes him hesitate, giving her enough time to speak on about the transience of humans in general and the beauty of what they leave behind.

She couldn't be more right if she knew he wasn't human at all. It reminds him of everything he enjoys about her, and he lets her have her date.

Chiyo catches him in a more demonic state in his own apartment and demands an explanation. He gives her the truth first and she accepts it. When he asks why she would believe something as absurd as a demon trying to fix the human world without questioning it, she tells him that she can always tell when he's lying by his eyes.

It's ridiculous. It's endearing. He wanted to see that movie anyway.

They're aware of each other because he mistakenly believed that would cause them to give up on this dating idea. It doesn't. They get along well the one time when they meet, and this is how Mitsu learns that he is a demon. According to her, it explains a lot.

Lucifer does not think he loves these women, not quite, but they are admirable and kind to him and he gains nothing by being less than kind in return. His stay on this Earth is temporary, but they've both accepted that. Their stay on this Earth is just as transient.

Demons and humans can interbreed, but the rates at which they do so are so infinitesimally small that he hardly remembers that there's a chance. When Chiyo reports that she's pregnant within the same weak as Mitsu announcing the same, he nearly has a heart attack.

Eight months is a blink of an eye for him, but he watches his lovers fret and worry about bringing children into a world on the edge of catastrophe. It drives him to work harder: his stake in this world has become far more personal.

His daughter and son are born within a few days. Mirai is older, and her exhausted mother tells him that she has his eyes. Setsuna gives his mother a harder delivery, but when she holds him in her arms she seems perfectly content.

Lucifer loves his children. That, he understands from their births.

He can make no further progress on Earth. To finish his work, he must return to Makai. Though it pains him to leave his young children, he knows they will need a world to live in more than they need the constant care of their father. He trusts their mothers to raise them well.

It doesn't stop him from returning when he can. When he can spare the time he comes back to Earth to see the two of them, always bigger than when he left. It warms his heart like little else can.

Someday they will be adults, and be able to stand on their own. Though nurturing does not come naturally to him, Lucifer will see to it that they grow.


End file.
